Advertisements are generally selected for display in association with a website using a cost-per-click (CCP) or pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement program. In such cases, an advertiser provides a CCP bid or a PPC bid for an advertisement that is used along with a click-through-rate (CTR) associated with the advertisement to select an advertisement for display.
Oftentimes, however, a click-through-rate associated with a particular advertisement is unavailable or inaccurate. For instance, a click-through-rate for an advertisement might be unavailable when the advertisement has not been previously displayed. Even if a click-through-rate for a particular advertisement can be estimated using initial displays of the advertisement, such a click-through-rate is generally inaccurate based on the limited frequency of display instances.
Unavailable and/or inaccurate click-through-rates can result in an improper advertisement selection. For example, an estimated click-through-rate for an advertisement that has been previously displayed only a few times might be inaccurate and relatively low. Assuming a particular system uses click-through-rates and CCP bids to select advertisements for display, such an advertisement may not be selected due to the inaccurately estimated click-through-rate even though the advertisement might be associated with a high CCP bid.
Further, in some cases, display of an advertisement might be limited until a satisfactory click-through-rate is obtained. By way of example only, an advertisement for which a satisfactory click-through-rate is unavailable might be restricted from participating in an advertisement auction, for example, using a CCP bid and a click-through-rate to select advertisements. In this regard, an advertisement might only be displayed in accordance with selection of the advertisement from among a set of advertisements for which a satisfactory click-through-rate is yet to be determined. Even if an advertisement with an unsatisfactory click-through-rate is permitted to participate in an advertisement auction, an inaccurately estimated click-through-rate can be detrimental to selection of the advertisement for display. Such limited display opportunities for an advertisement can delay an accurate estimation of a click-through-rate for the advertisement and/or hinder selection of the advertisement to be displayed thereby resulting in an economic and a promotional impact to the advertiser.